Sometimes I miss my former bike ignorance

I wish I was still a long haired 16 year old listening to Dead Kennedies and acid house riding my weird Peugeot 'mountain' bike that I never once cleaned or oiled.

My last bike, I found in a hedge with no chain. Reported it to the police who had no room to store it, nobody claimed it, 28 days later (no Rage virus involved, luckily) it was officially mine. I rode it for about 2 years with nothing done to it but a new chain to get it up and running, put my old super-fat MBT tyres on it to give the roads a bit of bounce and the occasional squirt of oil. When the gear cable broke, I just ran it in toppest most gear (108GI), which I grew to really like (except up hills - fucking brilliant going down though) and that got me my love of single speed bikes.

Now I have an OTP, which was supposed to have solved all my problems. But I've changed the tyres (rear one twice, about to be a third time), handlebars (twice), seat (three times - although two of those were old saddles I already owned), bought new brake cables because of the extra reach needed from the higher bars and I think it's finally getting to how I need it.

But really, the plan is to get the old bike back on the road with all new parts eventually, as a cheap looking bike with quite good components. I'm really enjoying the process of learning about bikes and servicing them along the way. I used to do so little maintenance, but then with dirt cheap bikes it's hardly worth spending the cash - they're almost a throwaway thing. Good bikes need work - it's official.

All I need to do now, is work out where that little creak from the chain ring/BB is coming from every time I put my foot down really hard...